Wireless communication systems have been commonly employed for some time to provide voice and data communications to subscribers within prescribed geographic areas. A typical modern wireless digital communication system includes one or more wireless mobile devices that communicate with a plurality of base stations. Each wireless mobile device may be hand-held or attached to a vehicle and may take any of various forms, including a tablet, phone or wireless digital assistant. Some of these devices have both voice and data capability while others provide data communication functions only.
At one time, determining the location of a device within a mobile communication system presented a challenge. However, most modern digital mobile devices are capable of using the global positioning system (GPS) for determining the device's location. GPS is a space based triangulation system using satellites and computers to measure positions anywhere on earth. Because of the capability of these devices to access the World Wide Web, and the capability of these devices to run application software programs (“apps”) that can make use of locally determined GPS information, real-time geographic information can be displayed to users of the devices in useful ways. Map data may also be acquired in real time over the public wireless data network or stored in a device. In either case, the geographic information can include the position of the device in question relative to map features.